Ukraine · 1946–
Antonov
Antonov is the Ukrainian aviation company descended from the design bureau that Oleg Antonov led from 1946, and it remains state-owned. Its speciality, sustained for eight decades, is very large transport aircraft and machines able to work from unprepared runways: two capabilities the Soviet Union commissioned from it and that independent Ukraine keeps as a strategic asset. Under the "An-" prefix it has built about 22,000 aircraft in total, from the agricultural and utility An-2 biplane to the An-124 Ruslan and the An-225 Mriya, the heaviest aeroplane ever built. Between those extremes sit the An-24, An-26, An-30 and An-32 turboprop families, still the backbone of regional transport across much of the world, and the An-148 and An-158 regional jets developed in this century. The break with Russia from 2014 left production all but halted, since every model in build depended on Russian suppliers, and the full-scale invasion of 2022 destroyed the Mriya at its Hostomel base along with other aircraft and facilities. The company continues to design, maintain and certify aircraft and to fly outsize cargo through Antonov Airlines.
History
A secret bureau in Novosibirsk
The company was created in 1946 within the Novosibirsk aircraft production association as a top-secret research and design bureau — OKB-153 — headed by Oleg Antonov and aimed at turboprop military transports. Its first assignment was an agricultural aeroplane, the CX-1, which flew on 31 August 1947 and went down in history as the An-2: a biplane so rugged and so cheap to operate that hundreds were still flying in 2013. The same early period produced the A-9 and A-10 gliders, built in small series. In 1952 the bureau moved to Kyiv, a city with aviation tradition and with manufacturing infrastructure already rebuilt after the war.
The transports that moved the Soviet Union
The 1957 introduction of the An-10 and An-12 mid-range turboprop family opened an era of production in the thousands, with a record ranging from the hardest military use to humanitarian relief: they served in the Vietnam War, in the Soviet–Afghan War and in the containment operation after the Chernobyl disaster. In 1959 the bureau built its own flight-testing base at Hostomel, outside Kyiv, the airport that now bears its name. In 1965 the An-22 entered serial production, the first Soviet wide-body aircraft and still the world's largest turboprop-powered aeroplane, and in 1966, after a major expansion of its premises, the firm took on another equally opaque name, the "Kiev Mechanical Plant". Through the seventies and early eighties it established itself as the Soviet Union's principal designer of military transport aircraft.
The giants and the opening up
International fame came with the very large aeroplanes. The An-124 Ruslan, introduced in 1982 under chief designer Viktor Tolmachev, became the country's mass-produced strategic airlifter; enlarging that design for the logistics of the Soviet spaceplane programme produced the An-225 Mriya in 1985, the largest and heaviest aeroplane in the world. After Oleg Antonov's death in 1984 the bureau was officially renamed after him. The end of the Cold War and perestroika allowed a first commercial step: in 1989 the Antonov Airlines subsidiary was created for maintenance of the company's own fleet and for cargo projects.
Independent Ukraine, rupture and war
After Ukraine's independence in 1991 the company stayed in state hands and has since been treated as a strategic national asset. It certified and marketed both Soviet-era and new models in markets outside the old sphere of influence — the An-140, An-148 and An-158 regional airliners — and won orders to upgrade hundreds of An-2 utility planes still in use in Azerbaijan, Cuba and Russia. In 2009 it absorbed the Aviant assembly plant in Kyiv, completing a full serial manufacturing cycle in house. The annexation of Crimea in 2014 changed everything: Ukraine cancelled its contracts with Russia and production effectively stopped, because every aircraft in build relied on Russian suppliers and expertise; only two An-158s were delivered in 2014, and one An-148 and one An-158 in 2015. The company looked for ways out — a 2018 agreement with Boeing to source parts, the An-132D demonstrator flown on 31 March 2017 under a Saudi contract, entry into Gulf and Indian markets — while the state reshuffled the sector: in 2015 it was transferred to Ukroboronprom, in 2016 a Ukrainian Aircraft Corporation was announced to group every plant in the country, and in 2017 the liquidation of the old concern as a residual corporate shell was approved. On 24 February 2022, in the opening hours of Russia's full-scale invasion, the attacks reached the Hostomel airfield: the An-225 Mriya, an An-26, an An-74 and the administrative buildings were destroyed, and an An-12, an An-22, an An-28, the An-132D and an An-124 were severely damaged. An An-124 that had been under modernisation there was finally flown out in July 2025.
Catalog — Aircraft
- 1947
Antonov An-2 Sheet pending
Variants (32)
- An-2A
- An-2E
- An-2F
- An-2G
- An-2L
- An-2LL
- An-2LP
- An-2LV
- An-2M
- An-2P
- An-2PD-5
- An-2PD-6
- An-2PF
- An-2PK
- An-2PRTV
- An-2R
- An-2RA
- An-2RT
- An-2S
- An-2SKh
- An-2T
- An-2TD
- An-2TP
- An-2TPS
- An-2V
- An-2VA
- An-2W
- An-2ZA
- An-4
- An-6
- An-6 Meteo
- SKh-1
- 1956
Antonov An-8 Sheet pending
Variants (6)
- An-8
- An-8M
- An-8PS
- An-8RU
- An-8Sh
- An-8T
- 1957
Antonov An-10 Sheet pending
Variants (9)
- An-10
- An-10A
- An-10AS
- An-10B
- An-10D
- An-10KP
- An-10TS
- An-10V
- An-16
- 1957
Antonov An-12 Sheet pending
Variants (45)
- An-12
- An-12A
- An-12AD
- An-12AP
- An-12B
- An-12B-30
- An-12B-I
- An-12BK
- An-12BK-IS
- An-12BKK
- An-12BK-PPS
- An-12BKSh
- An-12BKT
- An-12BKTs
- An-12BKV
- An-12BL
- An-12B (LIAT)
- An-12BM
- An-12BP
- An-12BPTs
- An-12BSh
- An-12BSM
- An-12BZ-1
- An-12BZ-2
- An-12D
- An-12DK
- An-12D-UPS
- An-12M
- An-12P
- An-12PL
- An-12PP
- An-12PS
- An-12R
- An-12RR
- An-12RU
- An-12SN
- An-12T
- An-12TP-2
- An-12U
- An-12UD
- An-12UD-3
- An-12VKP
- An-40
- An-40PLO
- An-42
- 1958
Antonov An-14 Sheet pending
- 1958
Antonov A-11 Sheet pending
- 1959
Antonov An-24
The Antonov An-24 is a Soviet twin-turboprop regional transport that first flew on 29 October 1959 and entered service in 1962. Designed to operate from rough airstrips, it became one of the most numerous regional aircraft of the Soviet bloc, with more than 1,367 examples built.
- 1960
Antonov A-15 Sheet pending
- 1965
Antonov An-22 Sheet pending
Variants (3)
- An-22
- An-22A
- An-22PZ
- 1967
Antonov An-30 Sheet pending
Variants (7)
- An-24FK
- An-30A
- An-30B
- An-30D Sibiryak
- An-30FG
- An-30M Meteozashchita
- An-30R
- 1969
Antonov An-26 Sheet pending
Variants (37)
- An-26
- An-26-100
- An-26A
- An-26ASLK
- An-26B
- An-26B-100
- An-26BL
- An-26BRL
- An-26B Tsiklon
- An-26D
- An-26K Kaira
- An-26K Kaplya
- An-26KPA
- An-26L
- An-26LL-PLO
- An-26LP
- An-26M
- An-26M Spasatel
- An-26 Nel'mo
- An-26P
- An-26 Pogoda
- An-26 Polyot
- An-26P Prozhektor
- An-26REP
- An-26RL
- An-26RR
- An-26RT
- An-26RTR
- An-26S
- An-26 Sfera
- An-26Sh
- An-26 Shtabnoy
- An-26SM
- An-26ST
- An-26T
- An-26 Vita
- An-26Z-1
- 1976
Antonov An-32 Sheet pending
Variants (12)
- An-32
- An-32A
- An-32B
- An-32B-100
- An-32B-110
- An-32B-120
- An-32B-300
- An-32LL
- An-32MP
- An-32P Firekiller
- An-32 RE
- An-32V-200
- 1977
Antonov An-72 Sheet pending
Variants (8)
- An-72
- An-72-100
- An-72-100D
- An-72A
- An-72AT
- An-72P
- An-72R
- An-72S
- 1980
Antonov An-3 Sheet pending
Variants (5)
- An-3P
- An-3SH
- An-3T
- An-3T-10
- An-3TK
- 1982
Antonov An-124 Ruslan Sheet pending
Variants (10)
- An-124-100
- An-124-100M-150
- An-124-102 Slon
- An-124-115M
- An-124-130
- An-124-135
- An-124-200
- An-124-210
- An-124-300
- An-124 Ruslan
- 1983
Antonov An-74 Sheet pending
Variants (17)
- An-74
- An-74-200
- An-74-200D
- An-74-400
- An-74A
- An-74MP
- An-74T
- An-74T-100
- An-74T-200
- An-74T-200A
- An-74TK-100
- An-74TK-100S
- An-74TK-200
- An-74TK-200C
- An-74TK-200S
- An-74TK-300
- An-74TK-300D
- 1985
Antonov An-71 Sheet pending
- 1988
Antonov An-225 Mriya Sheet pending
Variants (5)
- AKS
- An-224
- An-225
- An-225-100
- An-325
- 1994
Antonov An-38 Sheet pending
- 1994
Antonov An-70 Sheet pending
Variants (8)
- An-112KC
- An-170
- An-171
- An-188
- An-70T
- An-70T-100
- An-77
- An-7X
- 1997
Antonov An-140 Sheet pending
Variants (5)
- An-140-100
- An-140T
- An-140TK
- An-140 VIP
- HESA IrAn-140
- 2004
Antonov An-148
The Antonov An-148 is a high-wing, twin-turbofan regional jet designed by the Ukrainian bureau Antonov and built on two parallel lines: the Kyiv serial plant AVIANT and the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association (VASO) in Russia, which assembled it under licence. The project began in the 1990s as a passenger conversion of the An-74, took the An-148 designation in 2001 and led to the maiden flight of the first prototype on 17 December 2004. On 26 February 2007 the Interstate Aviation Committee and the Ukrainian aviation authority certified the aircraft together with its D-436-148 engine and its AI-450-MS auxiliary power unit. Its layout answers a very specific brief: operating from short, rough and cold airstrips in Siberia, Africa and Asia. Hence the high wing, the engines in pods slung beneath it and shielded from foreign object damage, the built-in airstair, the auxiliary power unit and the self-diagnosis system that let the type work without ground support. The manufacturer's own performance table gives a maximum capacity of 85 passengers, a 9,000 kg payload, altitudes of up to 12,200 m and a ground operating temperature range of -55 to +45 °C. The family was ordered by range: the An-148-100A covers 2,100 km with 75 passengers, the -100B reaches 3,500 km and the -100E 4,400 km at a maximum take-off weight of 43,700 kg. From them came the stretched 99-seat An-158, the An-148-200 sharing its rear fuselage, the An-148-300 business version (previously An-168) and the An-178 freighter, plus proposals for an airborne early warning platform and for licence assembly in Iran. The An-148 entered commercial service on 2 June 2009 with Ukraine's Aerosvit and on 21 December of the same year with Russia's Rossiya. It also flew with Angara, Saratov Airlines, Air Koryo and, in An-158 form, with Cubana de Aviación, while its largest export customer turned out to be the Russian Ministry of Defence, which contracted fifteen aircraft. It never reached the planned production rate. Two crashes and a political rupture closed the story. On 5 March 2011 a military prototype broke up in flight over Belgorod Oblast, and on 11 February 2018 Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crashed near Ramenskoye with 65 passengers and six crew aboard, leaving no survivors; the Russian fleet was grounded the following month. The break between Kyiv and Moscow after the 2014 annexation of Crimea cut off engines and spare parts: the last Russian-built An-148 was completed in October 2018 and VASO replaced the line with one for the Ilyushin Il-112. The programme ended with 47 aircraft built.
- 2015
Antonov An-178 Sheet pending
- —
Liutyi Sheet pending
- —
Antonov A-2 Sheet pending
Variants (2)
- U-s5
- U-s6
- —
Antonov An-28 Sheet pending
Variants (6)
- An-14A
- An-14M
- An-28
- An-28PT
- An-28RM Bryza 1RM
- An-28TD Bryza 1TD
- —
Antonov T-2M Maverick Sheet pending
- —
Antonov A-13 Sheet pending
Variants (3)
- A-13
- A-13M
- An-13
- —
Antonov A-40 Sheet pending
- —
Antonov A-7 Sheet pending
- —
Antonov A-9 Sheet pending
- —
Antonov A-1 Sheet pending
Variants (11)
- B-s3
- B-s4
- B-s5
- P-s1
- P-s2
- Standard-1
- Standard-2
- U-s1
- U-s2
- U-s3
- U-s4